Guitar Improvement - Reasons You'll Play Better With Your Eyes Closed

Even experienced guitarists might give you some odd tips on how to improve your skills, but most of the time they're right on point. For instance, me suggesting to you that playing with your eyes closed can help might sound like complete nonsense.

If you're looking to be more productive, recognize more stylistic features of songs, and improve your playing habits quicker, closing your eyes at practice can help. Here are a few important reasons why this strange method might do you more good than you think.

1. You'll improve your chord knowledge.

Fumbling around the fret board is common for beginning guitarists, but if you want to get those chords ingrained in your head better, taking your eyes out of the equation might be what you need. Try relying mainly on how the chords feel to set off that muscle memory and allow your hands to recall the formations easier next time.

2. You can increase your understanding of the fret board.

Flying all over the fret board can be overwhelming when you're having a hard time keeping up, but learning to identify the frets without seeing them would probably help you out. Try doing some difficult runs that take you across a few frets without your eyes and see if it helps to recognize the subtle distances on the guitar neck.

3. Recognizing your mistakes becomes easier.

There's just something about hearing your mistakes loud and clear that makes you want to fix them right away. When you decide to close your eyes during a fairly easy song or lick, hearing your mistakes becomes simpler and it will drive you to perfect your style of playing.

4. Your memory of the songs will improve.

If you're planning on performing in a band where you have to remember a number of fairly long songs, that can be overwhelming. Try practicing the tough sections with your eyes closed so your hands will be able to remember the motions when your vision seems to fail you.

5. You can learn the stylistic features of the song more intently.

Being able to play songs is very important, but being able to interpret them from the vantage point of the composer makes a real musician. Learning to improve through the work in your fingers will train you to listen for the subtle nuances that give the songs certain emotions and depth.

6. Song tempos will stand out more.

Playing out of tempo is a problem that is becoming pretty intolerable as a musician and will lessen your chances of being used for a band. If you rely on your fingers and ears as opposed to your eyes you'll find that adjusting to the song's natural speed is a bit easier.

There are so many ways to increase your guitar improvement, and any way that you can connect better with your instrument will help. Over your next few practices try a few standard pieces with your eyes closed and try to remember the music in everything but your vision.

About the Author

Kyle Hoffman is an experienced guitarist that enjoys performing on stage and just learning as a hobby. If you're looking to create a solid foundation to learn the guitar the RIGHT way, visit How To Guitar learn as part of Kyle's well-known guitar weblog, How To Guitar Tune